TRAVELING LITTLE MORSELS

Tag: switzerland

A Week in Switzerland with Kids – Logistics and Itinerary for a Family Trip

Trip motivation For our first big summer trip of 2026, our family headed to Switzerland! We were inspired by pictures of alpine peaks, gorgeous train routes, and other travel bloggers raving about the country’s epic playgrounds. We loved spending a few days in the Jungfrau region using Wengen as our home base to explore misty mountains, gondola rides, and massive waterfalls. We also fell in love with the picturesque town of Lucerne, and even got to experience the local sports culture firsthand by catching a world hockey festival in Zurich! We love European travel because it always offers incredibly family-friendly towns, easy navigating with trains, and so much history and beauty. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting, but with a little preparation, research, and tips from other travelers, we had an incredibly successful trip! This post covers our itinerary For more on our Switzerland Adventure, see our posts here A week in Switzerland with Kids – Logistics and Itinerary for a Family Trip Zurich and Lucerne Highlights with Kids Jungfrau Region – 4 days in Wengen, Switzerland with Kids Planning our Itinerary I love planning trips, especially through well-traveled places where there’s a ton of information to read through and make plans for. For this trip, I saved tons of instagram reels for inspiration and used the Busy toddler website as inspiration. We were in Lucerne for 2 days, Wengen for around 4 days, and Zurich for our last night. We read numerous blogs and books (Rick Steves is always a must-read for Europe trips). One tip for traveling with kids is take a 3-day best of guide and cut out half of it to make it actually realistic to manage in those same 3 days. Mix in some kid-focused/less touristy options like playgrounds, interactive museums, or a local festival. We did a lot of train and gondola travel on this trip and our kids loved reading their kindles on the trains. This was a great time for just chatting and reconnecting with gorgeous views. Several months before, I sketched out our plan in excel and on google maps with a balance of activities, rest time, food, rest, and fun. We made sure to research how far areas were and tried to schedule several anchor points with a few optional activities so we didn’t overstuff our schedule. Overview Day 0: Departure from Nashville Day 1: Arrival in Zurich, Scenic Train to Lucerne, Swiss Museum of Transport, & Old Town Exploration Day 2: Mount Pilatus (Frakmuntegg Area); Ropes Course and Tobaggan Slide  Day 3: Train to Jungrau Region, Wengen, & Trummelbach Falls Day 4: Interlaken Day: Giessbach Falls, Boat Ride, & Pool Relaxing Day 5: Manlichen Cow Playground, Liselotte Cow Hike, Pfingstegg Slide & FlyLine Day 6: Murren: Allmendhubel Flower Playground, Detective Trail, & Mountain Valley Views Day 7: Return to Zurich, Chocolate samples, & IIHF World Hockey Festival Day 8: Return home Flying to Switzerland For this adventure, we cashed in our American Airlines AAdvantage points to fly round-trip directly into and out of Zurich! About 55k points RT per person. It was an incredible value and saved us a ton out of pocket. Even though we used airline miles to book the actual seats, we made sure to put all of our trip expenses on our favorite travel credit cards to keep building up our point balances for the next big family getaway!   Chase Sapphire Preferred Apply Here Chase Sapphire Reserve Apply Here Chase Hyatt Apply Here Tips for Long Plane Rides Sleeping on planes West to East: Plan to sleep! For the overnight red-eye flight to Europe, we emphasized that after dinner service, everyone was going to try and get some sleep. I gave each kid a dose of melatonin and they passed out pretty immediately. We packed these cheap pillows from Amazon (They came with eye masks!). On arrival, get outside and try to limit naps so you can readjust. Activities for long flights East to West On the long flight, the kids were happy playing with the personal screen and alternating between  reading, tv, games, and snacks. When the kids were younger, they loved the Magic Treehouse books and activities in the Magic Ink and small play pack coloring books (Amazon links).  We have one Nintendo Switch that the kids love. For more on our favorite activities and tips for flying, see our post here. Lodging Lucerne: We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Lucerne – Kriens. We actually booked this one through the Chase Travel portal using our Chase Ultimate Rewards points, making it completely free out of pocket! It was located just a few quick train stops from the main Lucerne station, which made it super convenient to drop our bags and head straight out to explore. Wengen: For our mountain home base, we wanted a bit more space to spread out and the ability to cook a few meals, so we opted for an Interhome Apartment. I originally found the listing while scrolling through Booking.com, but I ended up booking it directly through Interhome to get the best rate. Having a full kitchen and separate bedrooms in the middle of the car-free village of Wengen was absolutely perfect for a four-day stay. Zurich: On our last night before flying home, we stayed at the Hyatt Place Zurich Airport The Circle. As huge Hyatt fans, we loved being able to book two separate rooms using our Category 1-4 Free Night Certificates! It was a quick walk to the airport terminal, and meant zero stress on the morning of our flight back to Nashville. They didn’t feed us breakfast but it was ok because we had airport lounge access. Transportation in Switzerland Train travel, cable cars, and public transit are the absolute crown jewels of visiting Switzerland. The entire system runs like clockwork, but navigating the ticket options as a family does take a little strategy! For our trip, we used a combination of the Swiss Half Fare Card and a 3-Day Jungfrau

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Zurich and Lucerne Highlights with Kids

Background For our first big summer trip of 2026, our family headed to Switzerland! We were inspired by pictures of alpine peaks, gorgeous train routes, and other travel bloggers raving about the country’s epic playgrounds. We loved spending a few days in the Jungfrau region using Wengen as our home base to explore misty mountains, gondola rides, and massive waterfalls. We also fell in love with the picturesque town of Lucerne, and even got to experience the local sports culture firsthand by catching a world hockey festival in Zurich! We love European travel because it always offers incredibly family-friendly towns, easy navigating with trains, and so much history and beauty. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting, but with a little preparation, research, and tips from other travelers, we had an incredibly successful trip! This post covers our days in Zurich and Lucerne For more on our Switzerland Adventure, see our posts here A week in Switzerland with Kids – Logistics and Itinerary for a Family Trip Zurich and Lucerne Highlights with Kids Jungfrau Region – 4 days in Wengen, Switzerland with Kids Arrival in Lucerne We flew from Nashville to Zurich and arrived early in the morning. At the airport it was easy peasy to grab our train tickets (and some coop snacks) and head to Lucerne with a quick beautiful one hour train ride. We checked into our hotel in Kriens around noon, dropped our bags and then kicked off our adventure in Lucerne. Transportation in Lucerne For our trip, we took adventure of the Swiss Half Fare Card and a local free pass given to us at our hotel. Trains were easy to look up on google maps and the sbb app. Hotel We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Lucerne – Kriens. We actually booked this one through the Chase Travel portal using our Chase Ultimate Rewards points, making it completely free out of pocket! It was located just a few quick train stops from the main Lucerne station, which made it super convenient to drop our bags and head straight out to explore. Our 2 day Itinerary in Lucerne Day 1: Scenic Train to Lucerne, Swiss Museum of Transport, & Old Town Exploration We decided to walk from the main Lucerne train station to the museum to stretch our legs and get some fun lake vibes. It was about 45 minutes and a nice introduction to the city seeing ducks and paddleboarders and boats on our walk. Swiss Museum of Transport (Verkehrshaus der Schweiz) If you are traveling to Lucerne with kids, this museum is so cool! It is massive, incredibly interactive, and we spent hours exploring every corner. The outdoor areas were the kids’  favorite. They have an awesome setup with miniature construction excavators, road-rollers, and outdoor bikes that the kids could ride around. Inside, the interactive elements felt a little outdated but were still really fun. It was definitely pricey and I’m not sure if we would repeat this stop on a future trip. Upstairs in the main museum, there was a fun VR sports area and there were several spots that had some interesting information. Everything was in English! We grabbed lunch at the museum cafe, and while the food was just okay, the bill gave us our very first real-glimpse into just how expensive Switzerland was going to be. It definitely forced us to budget a bit more intentionally for the rest of the week! Afternoon reset Instead of taking a boat, we hopped on a local transit bus to head back toward our hotel. Everyone was feeling the jet lag from the transatlantic flight, so we took a quick, highly necessary one-hour power nap to recharge. Old Town Exploration Later that evening, we headed into the heart of Lucerne to explore the historic bridges. We crossed the famous Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke). As in other trips, I quickly read the paragraph explainer from the Rick Steves book to mildly interested kids. The wooden covered bridge dating back to the 14th century. There were some really interesting historic paintings tucked up under the roofline. Because the sun stays out so late during the Swiss summer, we had plenty of daylight left to find a great dinner spot right on the river. We snagged an outdoor table at Rathaus Brauerei, a fantastic local brewery situated right under the historic town hall. Ben got to try a locally brewed house beer, we ordered some classic comfort plates like schnitzel and trout, and we just soaked in the gorgeous waterfront views as the city lit up. It was the perfect, cozy way to officially wrap up our first full day in Switzerland! Day 2: Mount Pilatus (Frakmuntegg) Day Partial Golden Round Trip Many travelers visiting Lucerne opt for the famous “Golden Round Trip,” which involves a boat cruise, a steep cogwheel railway, and a full trip to the very top of Mount Pilatus. However, since we knew we were going to get a massive dose of epic mountain views later in our trip in the Jungfrau region, we decided to follow a great tip we read online: do a partial Pilatus trip and focus entirely on Fräkmuntegg, a station half-way up with awesome activities perfect for our kids (age 8 and 11) Our original plan was to head up early on the panoramic gondola from Kriens, smash out the alpine toboggan slide first thing to beat the crowds, grab lunch at the top restaurant, tackle the ropes course, and then do a scenic family hike down to the next station below. As any parent knows, travel day timelines can get derailed by personal logistics! Due to a late start, our day shifted a bit. We skipped the hike and the playground (which looked a bit young for our kids anyway) and focused entirely on the main attractions at Frakmuntegg. Even with a compressed schedule, this ended up being one of our absolute favorite activities of the entire trip. Take the Kriens Gondola (30 minutes): Board

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Jungfrau Region – 4 days in Wengen, Switzerland with Kids

Background For our first big summer trip of 2026, our family headed to Switzerland! We were inspired by pictures of alpine peaks, gorgeous train routes, and other travel bloggers raving about the country’s epic playgrounds. We loved spending a few days in the Jungfrau region using Wengen as our home base to explore misty mountains, gondola rides, and massive waterfalls. We also fell in love with the picturesque town of Lucerne, and even got to experience the local sports culture firsthand by catching a world hockey festival in Zurich! We love European travel because it always offers incredibly family-friendly towns, easy navigating with trains, and so much history and beauty. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting, but with a little preparation, research, and tips from other travelers, we had an incredibly successful trip! This post covers our days in the Jungfrau region. For more on our Switzerland Adventure, see our posts here A week in Switzerland with Kids – Logistics and Itinerary for a Family Trip Zurich and Lucerne Highlights with Kids Jungfrau Region – 4 days in Wengen, Switzerland with Kids After an amazing couple of days exploring Lucerne, we packed up our bags and headed deep into the Swiss Alps. We chose Wengen as our home base for the next 4 days Train to Wengen We left Lucerne early in the morning by train and spent several hours winding through pretty landscapes, passing through Interlaken, down into the Lauterbrunnen, and finally catching the steep train up to Wengen. Our kids absolutely love train rides, and it is the perfect time for them to read and relax. Ellie kept busy with a new dot-to-dot activity book we brought along! Apartment home base Wengen is all about that cozy apartment life. We booked a beautiful local house via Interhome Apartment (which we found after searching on Booking.com). It was about a 10-minute walk from the Wengen train station. Having our own kitchen to cook in, separate bedrooms, and plenty of space to spread out made it the perfect family sanctuary after long days on the trails. An Early-Season Reality Check: Wengen is incredibly cute, but we ran into an interesting twist. Back home in the US, May was scorching hot, but in Switzerland, it was still very much early spring. A major theme of our stay was navigating early-season closures. The famous marble mazes in town weren’t set up yet, the local outdoor swimming pools hadn’t opened for the season, and several higher-altitude hiking trails were still closed due to snow! If you travel in the late spring, always check the local lift and trail status reports before you head out. Our 4-Day Jungfrau Itinerary Day 1: Arriving in Wengen & Trümmelbach Falls We arrived in Wengen in the early afternoon, unpacked our bags, and set out to explore the village. We grabbed some lunch, played a game on the giant life-size outdoor chess boards in the town center, and stopped by the local Coop grocery store to stock up on snacks. For our late afternoon adventure, we took the cogwheel train back down the mountain to the Lauterbrunnen stop and hopped on a local transit bus to Trümmelbach Falls. While some bloggers recommend squeezing this into a massive day trip, making it our sole afternoon activity was perfect. These are subterranean cave waterfalls with ten waterfalls hidden inside the mountain itself. It is incredibly loud, powerful, and absolutely spectacular to walk through. The sheer force of the water misting past you is something the kids will never forget! We took the bus and train back up to our apartment, whipped up an easy dinner in our kitchen, watched a hockey match on TV, and had a great, chill evening. Day 2: Männlichen Cow Playground, Lieselotte Trail, & Grindelwald This was one of the absolute best days of the entire trip! We purchased a 3-Day Jungfrau Travel Pass for all the gondolas and mountain trains. Money Saving Tip: Because we already had the  Swiss Half Fare Card, we got a discount on our 3-Day Jungfrau Pass. The kids were free with the family card. Morning: Cow Playground We started the morning by taking the quick cable car straight up from Wengen to Männlichen. We hung out at the outdoor tables at the restaurant and ate a scenic breakfast while the kids hit the legendary Alpine Cow Playground. The adults played on this playground too! It features a massive, multi-story wooden cow with a slide coming out of it, balancing ropes, swings, a mini bowling lane, and the most breathtaking mountain views backdrop you could ever imagine. Lieselotte Trail After playing, we picked up a free hiking map from the mountain restaurant and kicked off the Lieselotte Trail down to the Holenstein mid-station. This 3.5 km hike took us about 3 hours because it is packed with 13 interactive stations. The map has little punch-boxes, and the kids had to hunt for the hidden stamp locations at each stop. We got turned around once or twice and had to backtrack, but we found almost all of them! Along the way, the kids got to do a mountain long-jump, try blowing a real Swiss alphorn, play at a water mechanics table, and even practice “ax chopping” wooden logs. It’s an incredibly easy downhill walk with stunning views of the gondolas gliding overhead and plenty of fresh alpine water fountains to refill your bottles. At the very end near Holenstein, there is a fun little elevated tree-walk path to finish the trail. Grindelwald and Pfingstegg From Holenstein, we took the gondola down into the valley town of Grindelwald and grabbed some pizza for lunch (pricey, but standard for Switzerland!). Afterward, we headed over to Pfingstegg. Honest Blog Review: I wish I had researched this stop a bit better. Pfingstegg was not included in our Jungfrau Pass, so paying out-of-pocket for the separate cable car up plus the individual tokens for the activities made it quite pricey. Once at the top, the

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jennifer sedona

Traveling Little Morsels

Sharing memories and tips for enjoying travels with littles. Always looking forward to our next adventure! 

❤ Jenn Morse ❤

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